The Bridge THE BRIDGE-HELPFUL READING LITERACY STRATEGIES | Page 38

C r o s s - c u r r i c u l a r r e a d i n g s t r a t e g i e s w i t h i n t h e s c h o o l l i b r a r y
determined that they do not stand for the number of EU member states, but rather that the
number twelve symbolizes perfection.
In the second part of the lesson, the teacher and I handed out worksheets to the pupils
containing questions about the cultural landmarks and achievements in the EU. Answering
questions such as “What is the Mona Lisa?” posed no problem to the pupils. Our school was
involved in the project Comenius for a number of years, therefore, our pupils are acquainted
with the culture of other European countries. For certain facts, for example, “Who was born
in the Danish city of Odense?”, they turned to lexicons and encyclopaedias. The pupils were
very enthusiastic about the work and quickly answered all the questions.
The next task had to do with April 2, International Children’s Book Day, and Hans Christian
Andersen. The pupils received worksheets with the instruction “Link up the well-known
authors with the titles of their works” – for example, Pippi Longstocking – A. Lindgren, or The
Snow Queen – H. C. Andersen. This task was somewhat more difficult, but not too much, as
they helped themselves by rummaging through bookshelves for literature or browsing
through lexicons. They then took all the relevant books off the bookshelves and prepared
two exhibitions in the literary corner. With the first exhibition, they presented European
writers and their works. They wrote the names of various European countries and their
writers on sheets of paper and put the corresponding books next to them – for example,
SPAIN – M. S. CERVANTES – DON QUIXOTE. In this way, they got acquainted with the best-
known European authors and commemorated Andersen and the International Children’s
Book Day. The second exhibition was dedicated to Andersen’s life and his fairy tales. A pupil
from each group presented their selection of books. Most of them were familiar with the
stories featured in the exhibition, thus, it was easy to get the conversation flowing.
Lastly, the two of us – the teacher and the librarian – helped the pupils answer the
questions: Why is it necessary to know the culture of other countries? Do we know enough
about our own culture? Are we able to present our country and its culture to our penfriend?
The pupils drew on their experience as penfriends to conclude that they are often
embarrassed because they are unable to answer their correspondents’ questions.
In the days that followed, the exhibition prepared by the pupils of the seventh grade served
as an introduction to the presentation of the International Children’s Book Day for the pupils
of the primary level.
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